Monthly Archive: February 2017

“True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us.”

And

“Let him that would move the world first move himself.”

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“It is not living that matters, but living rightly.”

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“He is a man of courage who does not run away, but remains at his post and fights against the enemy.”

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“By all means, marry. If you get a good wife, you’ll become happy; if you get a bad one, you’ll become a philosopher.”

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“He is richest who is content with the least, for content is the wealth of nature.”

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“The unexamined life is not worth living.”

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“Be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in, continue firm and constant.”

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“Not life, but good life, is to be chiefly valued.”

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“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”

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“Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.”

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“If you don’t get what you want, you suffer; if you get what you don’t want, you suffer; even when you get exactly what you want, you still suffer because you can’t hold on to it forever. Your mind is your predicament. It wants to be free of change. Free of pain, free of the obligations of life and death. But change is law and no amount of pretending will alter that reality.”

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“Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty.”

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“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.”

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“I shall never cease from the practice and teaching of philosophy, exhorting anyone whom I meet after my manner, and convincing him, saying: O my friend, why do you who are a citizen of the great and mighty and wise city of Athens, care so much about laying up the greatest amount of money and honor and reputation, and so little about wisdom and truth and the greatest improvement of the soul, which you never regard or heed at all? Are you not ashamed of this? And if the person with whom I an arguing says: Yes, but I do care: I do not depart or let him go at once; I interrogate and examine and cross-examine him, and if I think that he has no virtue, but only says that he has, I reproach him with overvaluing the greater, and undervaluing the less. …For this is the command of God, as I would have you know…”

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“You will know that the divine is so great and of such a nature that it sees and hears everything at once, is present everywhere, and is concerned with everything.”

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“I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world.”

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“Bad men live that they may eat and drink, whereas good men eat and drink that they may live.”

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“Often when looking at a mass of things for sale, he would say to himself, ‘How many things I have no need of!””

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“There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance.”

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“I would rather die having spoken in my manner, than speak in your manner and live. For neither in war nor yet in law ought any man use every way of escaping death. For often in battle there is no doubt that if a man will throw away his arms, and fall on his knees before his pursuers, he may escape death, if a man is willing to say or do anything. The difficulty, my friends, is not in avoiding death, but in avoiding unrighteousness; for that runs deeper than death.”

“America is the most inventive country in the world because everybody has access to information.”

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“Fighting wars is not so much about killing people as it is about finding things out. The more you know, the more likely you are to win a battle.”

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“I was one of the first generations to watch television. TV exposes people to news, to information, to knowledge, to entertainment. How is it bad?”

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“I’ve made up stuff that’s turned out to be real, that’s the spooky part.”

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“In the Soviet Union it was illegal to take a photograph of a train station. Look what happened to them. They tried to classify everything.”

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“It’s not right to say that our loss in Vietnam turned out to be a gain. But lessons were learned. And they were the right lessons.”

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“Life is about learning; when you stop learning, you die.”

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“Man is a creature of hope and invention, both of which belie the idea that things cannot be changed.”

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“No matter what you or anyone else does, there will be someone who says that there’s something bad about it.”

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“Nothing is as real as a dream. The world can change around you, but your dream will not. Responsibilities need not erase it. Duties need not obscure it. Because the dream is within you, no one can take it away.”

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“People live longer today than they ever have. They live happier lives, have more knowledge, more information. All this is the result of communications technology. How is any of that bad?”

And

“Probably what pushed the Russians over the edge was SDI. They realized they couldn’t beat us.”

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“Show me an elitist, and I’ll show you a loser.”

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“The control of information is something the elite always does, particularly in a despotic form of government. Information, knowledge, is power. If you can control information, you can control people.”

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“The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense.”

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“The good old days are now.”

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“The human condition today is better than it’s ever been, and technology is one of the reasons for that.”

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“The U.S. Military is us. There is no truer representation of a country than the people that it sends into the field to fight for it. The people who wear our uniform and carry our rifles into combat are our kids, and our job is to support them, because they’re protecting us.”

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“There are two kinds of people: the ones who need to be told and the ones who figure it out all by themselves.”

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“There used to be this country called the Soviet Union; it’s not there anymore. Our technology was better than theirs.”

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“There was a time when nails were high-tech. There was a time when people had to be told how to use a telephone. Technology is just a tool. People use tools to improve their lives.”

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“Whenever somebody comes up with a good idea, there’s somebody else who has never had a good idea in his life who stands up and says, Oh, you can’t do that.”

“Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.”

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“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”

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“It’s better to hang out with people better than you. Pick out associates whose behavior is better than yours and you’ll drift in that direction.”

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“Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked.”

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“Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing.”

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“Risk is a part of God’s game, alike for men and nations.”

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“You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don’t do too many things wrong.”

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“The first rule is not to lose. The second rule is not to forget the first rule.”

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“It’s never paid to bet against America. We come through things, but its not always a smooth ride.”

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“A public-opinion poll is no substitute for thought.”

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“Our favorite holding period is forever.”

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“Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.”

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“Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.”

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“Wall Street is the only place that people ride to in a Rolls Royce to get advice from those who take the subway.”

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“We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful.”

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“You do things when the opportunities come along. I’ve had periods in my life when I’ve had a bundle of ideas come along, and I’ve had long dry spells. If I get an idea next week, I’ll do something. If not, I won’t do a damn thing.”

“A manager is responsible for the application and performance of knowledge.”

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“Checking the results of a decision against its expectations shows executives what their strengths are, where they need to improve, and where they lack knowledge or information.”

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“Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results not attributes.”

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“Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.”

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“Knowledge has to be improved, challenged, and increased constantly, or it vanishes.”

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“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.”

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“People who don’t take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year. People who do take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year.”

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“The entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it as an opportunity.”

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“The only thing we know about the future is that it will be different.”

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“Time is the scarcest resource and unless it is managed nothing else can be managed.”

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“Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes; but no plans.”

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“Management by objective works – if you know the objectives. Ninety percent of the time you don’t.”

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“Never mind your happiness; do your duty.”

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“The best way to predict the future is to create it.”

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“We now accept the fact that learning is a lifelong process of keeping abreast of change. And the most pressing task is to teach people how to learn.”

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“Morale in an organization does not mean that “people get along together”; the test is performance not conformance.”

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“A man should never be appointed into a managerial position if his vision focuses on people’s weaknesses rather than on their strengths.” The Practice of Management (1954)

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“It does not matter whether the worker wants responsibility or not, …The enterprise must demand it of him.” The Practice of Management (1954)

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“The postwar [WWII] GI Bill of Rights–and the enthusiastic response to it on the part of America’s veterans–signaled the shift to the knowledge society. Future historians may consider it the most important event of the twentieth century. We are clearly in the midst of this transformation; indeed, if history is any guide, it will not be completed until 2010 or 2020. But already it has changed the political, economic and moral landscape of the world.” Managing in a Time of Great Change (1995)

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“Most discussions of decision making assume that only senior executives make decisions or that only senior executives’ decisions matter. This is a dangerous mistake.”

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“Never mind your happiness; do your duty.”

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“Rank does not confer privilege or give power. It imposes responsibility.”

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“Management by objective works – if you know the objectives. Ninety percent of the time you don’t.”

And

“Knowledge has to be improved, challenged, and increased constantly, or it vanishes.”

And

“We now accept the fact that learning is a lifelong process of keeping abreast of change. And the most pressing task is to teach people how to learn.”

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“No institution can possibly survive if it needs geniuses or supermen to manage it. It must be organized in such a way as to be able to get along under a leadership composed of average human beings.”

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“The best way to predict the future is to create it.”

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“Business, that’s easily defined – it’s other people’s money.”

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“Trying to predict the future is like trying to drive down a country road at night with no lights while looking out the back window.”

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“The entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it as an opportunity.”

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“Making good decisions is a crucial skill at every level.”

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‘Today knowledge has power. It controls access to opportunity and advancement.”

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“Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action.”

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“The purpose of business is to create and keep a customer.”

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“The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say ‘I’. And that’s not because they have trained themselves not to say ‘I’. They don’t think ‘I’. They think ‘we’; they think ‘team’. They understand their job to be to make the team function. They accept responsibility and don’t sidestep it, but ‘we’ gets the credit…. This is what creates trust, what enables you to get the task done.”

“So give me a turbulent world as opposed to a quiet world and I’ll take the turbulent one.”

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“There is at least one point in the history of any company when you have to change dramatically to rise to the next level of performance. Miss that moment – and you start to decline.”

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“It’s not enough to make time for your children. There are certain stages in their lives when you have to give them the time when they want it. You can’t run your family like a company. It doesn’t work.”

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“A fundamental rule in technology says that whatever can be done will be done.”

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“A corporation is a living organism; it has to continue to shed its skin. Methods have to change. Focus has to change. Values have to change. The sum total of those changes is transformation.”

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“You have to pretend you’re 100 percent sure. You have to take action; you can’t hesitate or hedge your bets. Anything less will condemn your efforts to failure.”

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“Stressing output is the key to improving productivity, while looking to increase activity can result in just the opposite.”

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“Our biggest competition in achieving our ambitions, … is a television set.”

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“Technology happens, it’s not good, it’s not bad. Is steel good or bad?”

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“Your career is your business, and you are its CEO.”

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“The Lesson is, we all need to expose ourselves to the winds of change”

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“Strategic changes doesn’t just start at the top. It starts with your calender”

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“The person who is the star of previous era is often the last one to adapt to change, the last one to yield to logic of a strategic inflection point and tends to fall harder than most.”

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“If you’re wrong, you will die. But most companies don’t die because they are wrong; most die because they don’t commit themselves. They fritter away their valuable resources while attempting to make a decision. The greatest danger is in Standing still”

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“Selectivity – the determination to choose what we will attempt to get done and what we won’t – is the only way out of the panic that excessive demands on our time can create.”

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“Business success contains the seeds of its own destruction. The more Successful you are, the more people want a chunk of your business and then another chunk and then another until there is nothing”

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“People in the trenches are usually in touch with impending changes early”

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“It’s harder to be the best of class in several fields than in just one”

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“How can you motivate yourself to continue to follow a leader when he appears to be going around in circles?”

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“A strategic inflection point is a time in the life of business when its fundamentals are about to change. that change can mean an opportunity to rise to new heights. But it may just as likely signal the beginning of the end”

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“As we throw ourselves into raw actions, our senses and instincts will rapidly be honed again”

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“Just as you would not permit a fellow employee to steal a piece of office equipment worth $2,000, you shouldn’t let anyone walk away with the time of his fellow managers.”

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“Bad companies are destroyed by crisis, Good companies survive them, Great companies are improved by them.”

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“You need to try to do the impossible, to anticipate the unexpected. And when the unexpected happens, you should double the efforts to make order from the disorder it creates in your life. The motto I’m advocating is — Let chaos reign, then rein chaos. Does that mean that you shouldn’t plan? Not at all. You need to plan the way a fire department plans. It cannot anticipate fires, so it has to shape a flexible organization that is capable of responding to unpredictable events.”

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“You have no choice but to operate in a world shaped by globalization and the information revolution. There are two options: adapt or die.”

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“I think it is very important for you to do two things: act on your temporary conviction as if it was a real conviction; and when you realize that you are wrong, correct course very quickly”

“Coaching is a profession of love. You can’t coach people unless you love them.”

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“My players can wear their hair as long as they want and dress any way they want. That is, if they can afford to pay their own tuition, meals and board.”

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“People talk about the record I’ve compiled at Grambling, but the real record is the fact that for over 50 years I’ve had one job and one wife. I don’t believe anybody can out-American me.”

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“I’ve learned more about what the players meant to me and what they meant to the game. I never won a game – they did. You learn from every player because they’re not the same.”

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“Everything I’ve done, I think I dreamed of it first.”

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“The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential… these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence.”

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“Coach each boy as if he were your own son”

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“Leadership, like coaching, is fighting for the hearts and souls of men and getting them to believe in you”

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“They call me the greatest. I know that the greatest football coach who ever stepped on the field is Coach Eddie Robinson. I have admired what he has done in turning boys into men. He is a credit to his sport as well as a credit to humanity.” Muhammad Ali

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“First time I met Eddie was around 1968 up at Uniontown, Pa. I was an assistant coach at West Virginia, and he was the head coach at Grambling and very successful. He came up there and spoke at a banquet. I heard him speak, and he’s the kind of guy that you get close to immediately. … He was a people’s person. You can’t help but like him … I doubt if there is a coach in the United States that people have more respect for — and loved — than for Eddie Robinson.” Bobby Bowden

“Baseball is a game, yes. It is also a business. But what is most truly is is disguised combat. For all its gentility, its almost leisurely pace, baseball is violence under wraps.”

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“If you can do that – if you run, hit, run the bases, hit with power, field, throw and do all other things that are part of the game – then you’re a good ballplayer.”

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“In order to excel, you must be completely dedicated to your chosen sport. You must also be prepared to work hard and be willing to accept constructive criticism. Without one-hundred percent dedication, you won’t be able to do this.”

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“They throw the ball, I hit it. They hit the ball, I catch it.”

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“Every time I look at my pocketbook, I see Jackie Robinson.”

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“If you can do that – if you run, hit, run the bases, hit with power, field, throw and do all other things that are part of the game – then you’re a good ballplayer.”

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“It’s not hard. When I’m not hitting, I don’t hit nobody. But when I’m hitting, I hit anybody.”

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“At ten I was playing against 18-year-old guys. At 15 I was playing professional ball with the Birmingham Black Barons, so I really came very quickly in all sports.”

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“In 1950, when the Giants signed me, they gave me $15,000. I bought a 1950 Mercury. I couldn’t drive, but I had it in the parking lot there, and everybody that could drive would drive the car. So it was like a community thing.”

“I don’t feel right unless I have a sport to play or at least a way to work up a sweat.”

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“I looked for the same pitch my whole career, a breaking ball. All of the time. I never worried about the fastball. They couldn’t throw it past me, none of them.”

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“I never smile when I have a bat in my hands. That’s when you’ve got to be serious. When I get out on the field, nothing’s a joke to me. I don’t feel like I should walk around with a smile on my face.”

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“My motto was always to keep swinging. Whether I was in a slump or feeling badly or having trouble off the field, the only thing to do was keep swinging.”

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“The pitcher has got only a ball. I’ve got a bat. So the percentage in weapons is in my favor and I let the fellow with the ball do the fretting.”